Officers from all three services have done stints in post-war Japan as advisers during the Occupation years. Their tasks were to observe the demilitarization of Japan and then to develop contacts with the Self-Defense Forces, and more recently to promote defence sales from British manufacturers. Here a number of previous service attachés recount their experience in Japan.

Book: Biographical Portraits Volume VI
Author: Hoare, James Edward

Ernest Cyril Comfort played a significant role in the post First World War Civil Aviation Mission to Japan. This essay provides an account of the mission and Comfort's role in aiding Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Book: Biographical Portraits Volume IV
Author: Best, Antony

Initially an ambassador for British aviation and friend of Japan, Lord Sempill (1893-1965) ended his career in disgrace having received payments for providing Japan with information during the Second World War.

One of the key service sectors for Britain in Japan was the airline industry, and until the late 1980s the main British company involved was British Airways. Here David Wilkinson, BA's manager in Japan from 1978 to '87 gives an account of his experience there, along with his wife, Ann Wilkinson's reflections. Following this, Martin Naylor recalls the important role played by the Japan British Society in the 1960s and '70s. During a forty-year career in Japan, Dick Large worked for John Swire & Sons (during which time he precided over Swire Japan's international shipping operations), Cathay Pacific and BA. Here he reflects on this period.

Having first gone to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, Lew Radbourne returned in 1949 as a junior expatriate with Dodwell and Company. Duncan Fraser first worked in Japan with Jardin Matheson and Company Limited and ended his service there as Direct of Royals Royce (Far East). Here both recall the early years of working and trading in Japan

Book: Biographical Portraits Volume VIII
Author: Hoashi Kōji

This portrait charts the career of Ron Duckenfield (1917-2010) throughout the Second World War, as a fighter pilot and as a prisoner-of-war under the Japanese, and subsequently as air attaché to the British Embassy in Tokyo.